This blog explores a family history search. It addresses genealogy, Jewish heritage travel and artwork. It has taken the author to Belarus, the Ukraine and Poland where she visited her ancestral towns as well as Lithuania where she studied Yiddish at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute. As the author is both an artist and a genealogist, the blog also addresses her artwork related to her family and cultural history.

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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Blowing Kisses

I touch bases with my mother daily and today I hung up the phone
chuckling. "I just blew your Dad a kiss", she had said. "Huh?" I
replied. My father passed away early last year and my mother now
marvels that she never imagined she would live an entire year on her
own, with a cat no less. She never had a cat before and is as mystified
at the connection she feels for this furry creature as the fact that she
is managing without my father.

She now hastened to add that my dad's picture had just come up on her
picture screen and it was an old one of which she was quite fond, hence
the kiss.

My mother is 86 and I am afraid it is too late to introduce her to a
computer. We have, however, often wished we could easily share pictures
with her. When a friend mentioned the Pix-star to me I was intrigued.
It is like a digital picture frame, but with some unusual features. It
allows anyone to email pictures to the device. They then come up
automatically on the screen.

Unlike a traditional digital picture frame where someone needs to manage
the card, this can be managed from afar and operates via Internet in addition to supporting a SD card. An
email with a picture as an attachment is all that is required and
multiple people can add to it. A password enables one to go in and see
what is on the device and organize it into folders if you wish or take
some pictures off.

The one drawback is that you need an Internet connection and a person
who is not computer literate may not have one. In this case I
installed wireless because it made it easier for both my sister and me
when we spent time with my mother. I wanted to make sure she got the
benefit of it as well through pictures.

She is amazed when new pictures suddenly appear. It is like magic. She
looks up as she eats breakfast and there are images of her recent visit
with her great-grandson. How did they get into there she asks? She recalls how amazed her immigrant mother was at her world.
Now she often feels like her as she observes ours. I confide to her that sometimes I'm amazed too.

When I last visited I used my mouse scanner to scan some of her old
pictures and added those as well. For elders whose memories are
beginning to flag, it provides a way to keep the important people in
their life visible and to remind them of special memories that they
share with family members. Sometimes I'll ask her to describe the
pictures and we reminisce together about shared experiences.

When we first installed it my sister sent a message saying not to send
more pictures of our late father as it made my mom sad. A short time
later she said to ignore that earlier instruction as my mom decided she
liked them. And now she’s blowing him kisses.

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Welcome

Welcome to this blog. In these pages I address the issues that are of deep interest to me. I take you on my travels to Eastern Europe, my observations about the former and present Jewish communities in those countries and the response of those countries to their history. I capture this in both words and artwork and frequently share my artwork in these pages. In addition I address my genealogy research based on family who originated in many of the places I explore. This has been a process of discovery for me and I invite you to join me on this journey.

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About Me

Susan Weinberg researches, paints and writes about family, cultural and community history. Her family history interests and travel frequently inform her artwork.
Susan writes of her travel to ancestral towns throughout Eastern Europe and her artwork based on those communities.
Susan has exhibited her artwork nationally and internationally. Her most recent body of work is the Jewish Identity and Legacy project, a project which includes oral history and art creation. Based in Minneapolis-St Paul, Susan creates artwork and does genealogy consulting. She speaks frequently on her artwork and genealogy topics. She maintains two blogs, Layers of the Onion with a family history and art focus and Creative Connections.on the Minneapolis Jewish Artists' Lab.